Lung cancer will soon become the biggest cancer killer among women - overtaking breast cancer - because of the number who took up smoking 50 years ago.

Death rates for women with lung cancer will rise eight per cent by 2014 in the 27 EU states, according to a new report, The Daily Mail reported.

Lung cancer for women - and pancreatic cancer for both men and women - have been revealed as an increasingly deadly threat by researchers from the University of Milan.

The analysis showed that absolute numbers of cancer deaths had increased since 2009 when the last mortality figures for the EU were published by the World Health Organisation.